Vehicles operating in an autonomous mode (e.g., driverless) can relieve occupants, especially the driver, from some driving-related responsibilities. When operating in an autonomous mode, the vehicle can navigate to various locations using onboard sensors, allowing the vehicle to travel with minimal human interaction or in some cases without any passengers.
Motion planning and control are critical operations in autonomous driving. In traditional vehicles, a collision is detected based on an impact resulted from the collision (e.g., after the collision), and an airbag is deployed in hundreds of milliseconds after the collision happens. Such a delay of airbag deployment may not prevent the driver and passengers from being injured.